Counterpoint & Canon

Tag: self examination

  • Psalm 2

    Why are the nations in an uproar
    And the peoples devising a vain thing?
    The kings of the earth take their stand
    And the rulers take counsel together
    Against Yahweh and against His Anointed, saying,
    “Let us tear their fetters apart
    And cast away their cords from us!”

    He who sits in the heavens laughs,
    The Lord scoffs at them.
    Then He will speak to them in His anger
    And terrify them in His fury, saying,
    “But as for Me, I have installed My King
    Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”

    “I will surely tell of Yahweh’s decree:
    He said to Me, ‘You are My Son,
    Today I have begotten You.
    Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance,
    And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.
    You shall break them with a rod of iron,
    You shall shatter them like earthenware.’”

    Now therefore, O kings, show discernment;
    Take warning, O judges of the earth.
    Worship Yahweh with reverence
    And rejoice with trembling.
    Kiss the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way,
    For His wrath may soon be kindled.

    How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!

    In the first Psalm we got a broad-stroke contrast between the righteous and the wicked, and we learned the necessity of being counted among the congregation of the righteous. In the second Psalm we step back from the pictures of individuals, and even assemblies, to view the cosmic reality that undergirds the urgent lesson of the first. God has promised to give the whole world to His Anointed One, His Messiah.

    unreached_map

    In this Psalm, we hear three different speakers and the Psalmist’s commentary on what they say. His comments begin and end the Psalm, and he begins with the futility of the nations’ resistance to God’s reign. “Why are the nations in an uproar?” Why do the kings of the earth plot and scheme together, as though they could overthrow the reign of the Creator God and His chosen Instrument? It’s a rhetorical question with an obvious implication: the earth’s rulers are impotent in the face of Yahweh and His Anointed. Nevertheless, in spiritual blindness they continue their plotting: “Let’s throw off their cords and break their shackles! We will do what we please.” The thought is the same as what we find in Jesus’ parable about the man who went to receive a kingdom for himself and then return; while he was gone, the people sent a delegation after him saying, “We will not have this man to rule over us” (Luke 19:14).

    The next speaker we hear is Yahweh Himself, and we are told that as He reflects upon the indignant rebellion of the kings of the earth, He laughs them to scorn. Yahweh does not fear men, whom He made from the dust of the ground. Sadly, this story doesn’t end in laughter, but in fright and terror: “He will speak to them in His anger and terrify them in His fury.” His word to the kings of the earth is that He has installed His King (the Hebrew is emphatic there) at Zion. Similarly, the implication is that the nations are “a drop in the bucket” when compared with the great King whom Yahweh has appointed.

    We then hear the third speaker – the Anointed Himself, whom we understand now to be Jesus Christ – claiming the relation of Sonship to Yahweh and relating what He was told by His Father. The nations are to be given to the Messiah for ownership, for judgment, for breaking and shattering. The Son will possess what the Father possesses, and the plans of the nations will fail at the end to deliver them from His everlasting reign.

    The final word given by the Psalmist is a caution: “Get your world view straight! Yahweh reigns now, and His Anointed has been promised the nations as a gift.” They will not be able to throw off His chains in the end. If they are discerning, they will worship with reverence, rejoice with trembling, and give over entirely to the Son before His wrath is kindled.

    And so ought we to do. Do we see Yahweh as presently reigning King, subduing enemies under His feet and handing over the nations to His Son? Do we have a proper vision of His majestic glory, his terrible wrath and fury, and his kind patience in turning people to Himself and His ways? Does our vision of the triune God, remarkably described in this Psalm, draw us to reverent and joyful worship?

    If these things are true of us, we may be confident of the blessing promised at the conclusion for “all who take refuge in Him”! Do not be surprised that the rulers of the earth will not suffer Yahweh’s Messiah to rule over them. Do not fear them! In their resistance, they will fail; in His swift judgment, they will fall. See the big picture: Kiss the Son; be among the congregation of the righteous; and be there because the nations have been promised to Him who reigns over all and blesses His own.

  • Psalm 1

    How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
    Nor stand in the path of sinners,
    Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!
    But his delight is in the law [torah] of Yahweh,
    And in His law [torah] he meditates day and night.
    He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,
    Which yields its fruit in its season
    And its leaf does not wither;
    And in whatever he does, he prospers.

    The wicked are not so,
    But they are like chaff which the wind drives away.
    Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
    Nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.
    For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous,
    But the way of the wicked will perish.

    wisdom_tree

    I remember hearing a sermon on this Psalm preached by Ralph Davis, my pastor at Woodland Presbyterian, a number of years ago. I was impressed with his summary statement. Early in the sermon, he emphasized that the reason this Psalm is at the front end of the Psalter is to throw emphasis on how important it is that we belong to the congregation of the righteous. To us, Psalms 100, 103, 95, 23, or even 73 might seem like much more natural fits for the opening of a book of praise. God in His Spirit saw things differently.

    In the opening of the Psalter we are encouraged to think on the stark (and eternal) differences between the wicked and the righteous, and prompted to examine ourselves to see if we belong to the latter group or not. What are the characteristics of the righteous? He is, first of all, blessed. He is happy in God. Why? The ground of this blessing is given in the progression illustrated in the first three lines – he is blessed who does not “walk,” “stand,” or “sit” in this way or in this company. I am reminded here of the parallel from Deuteronomy 6, the command to teach God’s ways to one’s children when we lie down, when we stand up, when we walk by the way – poetic longhand for “at all times and in all life’s affairs from small to great.” The righteous doesn’t walk according to wicked counsel – the direction of his life comes from God, which we will see illustrated below. He does not stand in the path, or the way, of sinners – his behavior is not like theirs. He doesn’t sit in the seat of the scoffer – in other words, he doesn’t belong to that group or associate himself with them. A primary characteristic of the righteous (and happy) man is that he is separated; we first learn about him by understanding who he is not and what he doesn’t do.

    But what does the righteous man do, and what is the result? In God’s law he meditates continually. The Hebrew word we translate “law” here is torah, which is broader in meaning than “the direct commands of God.” Torah refers to all the revelation of God to men – narrative history, wisdom, and even the Psalter itself. We get the idea here that God’s revealed truth is something the righteous man mulls over all the time. Perhaps the stories, commands and proverbs are running through his mind (and over his lips) the way popular radio songs run through ours. I think that ought to make us stop, by the way, and consider our own habits. Why? Consider the third verse.

    The results of his meditation are shown by a simile: He will be like a tree planted by a stream – he bears fruit and his works prosper. Obviously, we are being given the brief summary from the divine perspective and not the day-to-day details of the life of the righteous. The Psalmist knows we may read those elsewhere in the Scriptures. He is concerned to give us the big picture because it is necessary for us to keep that vision in view through the storms that will come. The righteous bears fruit and prospers – strong trees weather storms. We must not ignore what, in the Psalmist’s view, gives strength to the tree: continual meditation on the thoughts of God given to men.

    The contrasting picture of the wicked is as brief as it is desperate. He is emphatically “not so!” He is not a tree, nor even a sheaf of wheat, but chaff, driven by the wind. His life is, in the end, not substantial; no fruit is borne, and, as we read elsewhere, his end is to be burned. In contrast to the righteous, notice what the wicked lack (again, I’m remembering Davis’ sermon here):

    They are not justified before God (they will not stand in the judgment).

    They do not commune with God or His people (sinners will not be in the assembly of the righteous).

    They have no hope (their way will perish, or lead them to destruction).

    If we can’t hear it clearly enough yet, the Psalmist is saying to us, “You don’t want to be one of them! They are NOT blessed – on the contrary, they’re unhappy, unjustified, alienated, and ultimately damned!” Are you part of the congregation of the righteous? There remains one final encouragement from the Psalmist to ensure that you are: Yahweh knows the way of the righteous. He is intimately acquainted with those who love Him, and He designs, oversees, acts in and works in their way from beginning to end. The righteous, who love Yahweh’s torah, will not be forsaken.

    Are we a part of that congregation? How do we know? We can start by heeding the opening words of the Psalter: how do we walk? Where do we stand? With whom do we sit? And what is the meditation of our hearts by day and night? Our walk will confirm to us our end. If we would bear the peaceful fruit of righteousness, and if we would sing the praises of God with His people, we must carefully consider where we stand in light of the Psalmist’s preface of admonition. First things first.